A good choir can send chills up your spine. And in recent years, choirs have really broken out of their traditionally religious mold -- like the Scala & Kolacny Brother’s choir from Belgium, which has become world renowned for their covers of pop and rock songs like Radiohead’s “Creep” and Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody.”

But what about when rock and pop artists are the ones leading the choir? We asked New Yorker editor Ben Greenman and author and music writer Sean Manning to join us for a Soundcheck Smackdown.

So, What do you think. Are choirs in rock songs heavenly… or hellish?

You know the saying, it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all. We don’t think that’s helped anyone going through a breakup. But it has led to some great, enduring albums -- like Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, and Richard and Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out the Lights. Now, Josh Ritter is adding to that long tradition.

Josh Ritter’s new album is called The Beast In Its Tracks, and it chronicles the end of his marriage to another musician, the singer songwriter Dawn Landes. He joined us in the studio to talk about the album, and the emotions behind it, before heading off to Austin Texas for this week’s SXSW music festival -- where he’s playing a couple of showcases on Thursday night, March 14th. But if you’re not going to Austin, crack a Lone Star beer and enjoy this in-studio performance and conversation with Josh Ritter, who is accompanied by Josh Kaufman.

It’s been almost seven years since Justin Timberlake released his hugely successful album Future Sex/Love Sounds -- but this week, the pop star decided his fans had waited long enough. A week before the official release of his highly-anticipated latest effort, called The 20/20 Experience, the album hit iTunes as a free stream. Melissa Maerz, senior writer for Entertainment Weekly, joins us for a snap review.

You'd think something folky or dreamy might be the best way to ease into five nights straight of music. Instead, Soundcheck producer Michael Katzif saw three vastly different female artists, including a guitar-shredding Marnie Stern, whose debut album is called The Chronicles Of Marnia.

Violinists Jennifer Koh and Jaime Laredo perform at Columbia University's Miller Theatre Wednesday night. Download Jennifer Koh's performance of J.S. Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor, Movement IV.